MS Excel always requesting activation

Question

Every time I open my laptop, excel always prompting me to activate it. I'm using macbook and I have a office 365 E3 license. How can I stop the prompt every time I open my laptop.

Answer 1

I resolved my issue by activating my excel using another account that I owned and it seems the prompt have stop appearing.

Answer 2

Hi

The usual cause is that you have more than one copy of an Office application on your Mac. Use Spotlight to search for applications that are duplicates or outside the Applications folder. You can narrow your search by referring to individual app names in your Spotlight search, such as Excel.app or Word.app

https://nektony.com/reviews/spotlight-search

Answer 3

Hi [rby],

Thanks for your valuable feedback and sharing updates with us and I really appreciate your effort and your precious time doing. 

And I appreciate your kind words.

First, please make sure multiple versions of Office is not installed on your Mac OS machine.

Since run license removal tool doesn't work form your side, then I need to collect below information.

1. Please go to www.office.com >Settings>subscriptions page, share a full screenshot here.

2.Confirm whether other applications also get the same problem? Such as PowerPoint or Word and etc.
3.Screenshot of prompting activate error message.

Please this information is required to narrow down your problem.

Meanwhile, try the following steps:

Step1:

1.Open keychain access.

2.Go through and remove off the Microsoft related keychains (Microsoft Office, Microsoft lync, skype, etc..).

Step2:

Reset your credentials:

1.Open Spotlight by selecting the magnifying glass at the top right of your desktop.

2.Search for and open Keychain.

3.Type in Office and then delete the data license file.

Step3:

Also, please try to remove the Office folders from Containers folder in Library with following steps.

a: Completely quit all Office apps

b: In Finder, press COMMAND +Shift+g.

c: Enter**~/Library** and click Go

d: Go to Containers folder, find the folder called Microsoft Excel or com.Excel

e: Move this folder to your desktop by cut&paste .

f: Relaunch Excel for Mac application and see the results.

Your understanding and patience will be highly appreciated. I hope that you are keeping safe and well!

Sincerely,

Waqas Muhammad

Answer 4

Hi Waqas,

Tried the removable tool, my issue still persist.

May mac is on BigSur 11.4 and may excel is 16.66

Answer 5

Dear [rby],

Good day! Thank you for posting to Microsoft Community. We are happy to help you.

As per your description, please let us cooperate and please don’t worry, we can work together to narrow down and resolve the situation.

It seems that when you open Excel file on your Mac OS and it always prompting you to activate it. May I know if my understand is correct?

Since you have office 365 E3 license and my suggestion is below.

1.You can refer to this article: How to remove license to use/run license removal tool to remove the license files on your Mac first.

2.Then Restart Mac, open Office and use your work/school Office account now to sign in again with the account associated with your Office.

If above suggestion does not work, to narrow down your issue, please tell us more information below to let us help you:

1. Confirm the version of Mac OS and Office 

Find out which macOS your Mac is using

About Office: What version of Office am I using?

2.. Screenshot of your work subscription page (Log in to Office 365 portal (portal.office.com)>Settings>Office 365>subscriptions page.

Your understanding and patience will be highly appreciated. I hope that you are keeping safe and well!

Sincerely, 

Waqas Muhammad